Back in 2017, the Dragon Challenge roller coaster closed forever, and Universal confirmed that replacing this attraction would be an unnamed Wizarding World dark ride that “will take [guests] deeper into J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, where you will encounter some of your favorite characters and creatures”. And while that sounded pretty generic, it was the only description we had of this new ride for over a year. However, earlier this week Universal finally revealed some new details about this ride...and perhaps most importantly...when guests can go check it out!

Introducing Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

Image: Universal

Though speculation was that this new attraction might be based on the new Fantastic Beasts series, it looks like Universal is still looking to characters from the original Harry Potter books and films for inspiration, confirming that this new roller coaster at Islands of Adventure will feature the character of Hagrid.

As you might guess from the name, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure will bring guests flying on Hagrid's motorbike beyond the grounds of Hogwarts castle on a roller coaster ride, where they’ll see “some of the Wizarding World’s rarest magical creatures.” The ride will have very unique coaster trains that recall the look of a motorbike and its sidecar which were featured in the films and replicated as a photo op in Diagon Alley.

Image: Warner Bros

Though Universal hasn't shared much about the plot of this new attraction, it is now calling this the most "highly themed" roller coaster ever in a Universal park, which is quite the statement, considering Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts (which is a coaster/dark ride hybrid) is just across the resort.

Though unconfirmed, based on photos posted on social media, we can sort of guess what Universal is meaning here however, as there will be both indoor and outdoor sections of this ride, as well as animatronic creatures (reportedly including Fluffy and the Pixie featured in the concept art above) for guests to see as they zoom past both indoor and outdoor areas. Though we can't know for sure, it looks like this ride won't be too reliant on screens, which has been a criticism of both of the other headlining Harry Potter attractions in Orlando. But the good news is, even though there are still a lot of missing details about this attraction, we won't have to wait long at all to check it out for ourselves...